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BHS freshman swimmers make big splash at Mid-Suburban meet

By ANDY SCHMIDT
editorial@lakecountysuburbanlife.com

Feb. 17, 2014

BARRINGTON – There are just some years where teams get a talented group of players that come into their school and begin to become the heart of the team straight from their freshmen year. Barrington High School's boys’ swimming team is like that with seven freshmen on their roster.

That youth, along with seniors Sebastian Piekarski and Sam Miseyka, helped the host Broncos on Saturday to a victory in the Mid-Suburban League Meet to score a repeat from last year. The day started promising for Barrington with a second-place finish in the 200-medley relay, losing by just .03 seconds. After not placing anyone in the top four in the 200 free-style or 200 IM, the seniors took over the 50 free-style.

Piekarski finished in 21.86 to win the event, while Miseyka finished second in a time of 22.16 to help the Broncos be in second place after five events counting the diving portion which took place on Friday night.

The team’s youth took over in the 500 free-style where freshman Mitchell Gavars swam an amazing 4:55.78 to be the only swimmer to finish in less than five minutes. Fellow freshman Jeremy Kleinjan finished second in 5:00.10. The team then wen ton to win the 200 free-style relay led by Piekarski and Miseyka in 1:30.23. It was Piekarski’s third win of the day including a victory in the 100 free-style with a time of 48.44. That allowed the Broncos to have the lead with just three events to go.

The Broncos didn’t win any of the final three events but gota second-place finish from Colin O’Leary in the 100 backstroke, and a third-place finish from Miseyka in the 100 breaststroke. Barrington finished the day using four freshmen in the 400 free-style relay where they finishedfourth overall to finish on top with 250 points. Wheeling was second with 213 points where Fremd took third with 199. Barrington coach John Valentine said that it was a meet dominated overall by young swimmers, including his own.

“This is a young team, we got seven freshmen on varsity, and if you look at the meet, you see a lot of first and second-place finishes by freshmen,” Valentine said. “Our 400 free relay which didn’t win was all freshmen, so it really bodes well for the future of Barrington swimming.”

Valentine added that while the team will lose two seniors,he has a group that could make some noise next year.

“Our relays are pretty solid, but we are going to lose Sebastian Piekarski and Sam Miseyka, our two fastest 50 free-style swimmers,” Valentine added. “Right behind them though, we got a core of seven freshmen whocould individually qualify next year for state as well.”

While the win increases confidence moving forward, this weekend’s sectional meet at Stevenson in Lincolnshire is going to be a whole lot tougher especially, because of the host school but the competition in the Mid-Suburban has helped his team get ready for that.

“The MSL is a really tough division, but we are fortunate to have a deep squad, which is why we were able to come back from a 25-point deficit to win this meet,” Valentine said. “Our tough competition is really against Stevenson. Every year, it comes down to see if we can step up against Stevenson.”